OUAGA FILM LAB

Plateforme de rencontres entre des jeunes talents

Appel à projets / Call for projects
01.04 - 15.05 2023

All projects

Commandanté Titina Sila “Victoria Certa”

Documentary | Senegal

Synopsis

Ernestina “Titina” Sila, thirty years old, (1943-1973) is a Bissau Guinean heroine and martyr, comrade in Amilcar Cabral’s struggle for the independence of her country. Her figure as a military woman and warrior commanding an army of more than a thousand men contrasts with the “postcard” image of the African woman always with a bundle of wood on her head and a child on her back.

With my van (just like my father), I take photos and video images from archives and press clippings, to crisscrossing Guinea Bissau to hear Titina Silà’s story from her relatives, her comrades in political struggles, and also from Guineans themself. I will also interview researchers, journalists, politicians, and anonymous people on the place that Titina Silà still occupies today in the hearts of Bissau Guineans.

 

Production note

I have always been touched by the singular stories of women and men who stand out for their commitment and their struggles for their fellow human beings, for justice and a better humanity. It is even more powerful when it is about a figure as emblematic as Titina Silà, whose story is not told by any film, neither fiction nor documentary.

Our responsibility as storytellers pushed us to go back to Bissau, by our own means, to meet Titina’s family, including her little sister, Gilda Sila and especially her daughter, Éva Silà Nadigna, but also her comrades in the struggle, such as Anna Maria and Theodora Gomez, as well as veterans of the PAIGC, to bear witness to Titina Silà’s life and her intellectual, military and human journey.

Commandanté TITINA SILA" Victoria Certa"

Director
Dia Samba
Senegal

Commandanté TITINA SILA" Victoria Certa"

Producer
Pape Abdoulaye Seck
Senegal